Put simply, I like Reach. I don't love it, but I like it.
The playability level was way high in my opinion. I didn't get bored of it too quick, and if I did there were always other games. I could always pop in Halo 3 for a nostalgia nuke. What is it I miss? Custom games. I always loved playing Fat Kid, or Cops n' Robbers in Halo 3, and Reach.
I'm not going to ignore the problems Reach had in it's days. But quite frankly, I was confused when people talked about problems with Reach. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Armor Lock did piss me off some, but I got around it. Atleast Reach got "fixed" but sadly it got "fixed" by 343i. As per the fact that I never had a problem with any of Reach's problems, I guess I just lucked out.
This brings me to Halo 4. I see no potential in this game. A new AAA company deciding to compete with all of the other top game companies out there does NOT ignore any of the problems about their game! There are some game breaking issues in Halo 4 that really need to be fixed, and 343i hasn't even attempted to mention the fact that these need to be fixed. Instead, they release a map pack that everyone has to pay for, (those who got the Season Pass) but instead they decide to SCREW UP and make it free.
They then take their mistake, fix it, and say: "Yeah that was a special gift."
Bull-blam!-, that was a god damned mistake. It's quite annoying when things like this happen.
I wouldn't have minded if Halo 4 got delayed about 2 months if it meant they could fix all of the problems with it.
Bullet magnetism is way high, it's too easy to snipe, quite frankly the game itself is TOO easy. Whoever sees who first wins. Simply as that.
343i should have invested more money in a Halo 2 anniversary with a built-in multiplayer, or simply just decided to fund more money toward bringing Halo 2 servers back up.
Halo 2 is the definitive Halo game. In term of multiplayer atleast.
As soon as multiplayer is out of the question Halo: CE steps in and -blam!-s -blam!- up.
TL;DR
Reach was fine, Halo 4 is bad, Halo 3 is good, Halo 2 is best, Halo: CE is core.
Where do you stand?
[Edited on 12.31.2012 1:44 AM PST]